New Armor Passes Tough Test

You all might remember we reported a new kind of flexible body armor being developed by pre-Dragon Skin designer Allan Bain back in October.

At the time, Bain had tested his armor against some pretty mean armor-piercing rounds (a Swiss-made armor piercing round that is more powerful than the one specified by the Army) shattering the tiles but slowing down the round enough to keep it from penetrating the Dyneema backing.

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DARPA killer AI robots to 'participate in own construction'

You've got your robots which can make copies of themselves, of course. That's pretty scary - a runaway exponentially-multiplying machine horde, potentially able to overrun the human race in an eyeblink. But how much more scary would it be if you had a machine which could not only make copies of itself once complete, but could also participate in its own construction while it was still being built?

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US raygun jumbo jet now firing live blasts in flight

The US Missile Defence Agency's long awaited blaster-cannon-in-a-jumbo-jet, the Airborne Laser (ABL), is now carrying out inflight test zappings. Reports suggest that the actual laser is doing well so far, but that the carrying 747 is suffering technical problems having been grounded for a lengthy period while its energy weapon was fitted.

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